Grilled Sweet and Spicy Basil Chicken 🍗🙌🏻 features perfectly grilled chicken with a sweet and spicy glaze and plenty of fresh basil flavor. Served with lightly charred vegetables, it’s an EASY complete dinner that’s perfect for summer barbecues, picnics, potlucks, and grilling season!
Easy Grilled Sweet and Spicy Basil Chicken Recipe
- This may just be the best grilled chicken I’ve ever made, and that’s saying something because I have more than 25 grilled chicken recipes on my site.T
- he smell alone will have everyone running to the grill, and the flavor more than delivers. It’s juicy, flavorful, and an instant crowd favorite.
- Make it for Memorial Day, Father’s Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, backyard barbecues, or any casual summer get-together with a cold drink in hand.
- It’s also easy enough for a weeknight family dinner, especially with grilled vegetables on the side to make it a complete meal.
Ingredients in Grilled Basil Sweet and Spicy Chicken
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts: For best results, pound the chicken to an even thickness, slice extra-large breasts in half horizontally, or use thin-sliced chicken breasts or chicken tenders. Boneless skinless chicken thighs also work, or you can use skin-on or bone-in chicken, but you will need to adjust the grilling time.
- Sweet and Spicy Cayenne Grilling Sauce, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and salt: These create the sweet, spicy, tangy marinade that gives the chicken so much flavor with barely any effort.
- Fresh basil: Fresh basil is used as a garnish and adds the bright, fresh flavor that makes this grilled chicken taste extra summery.
- Grilled vegetables: Broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, red bell pepper, and red onion are great because they are common summer vegetables and cook in about the same amount of time when chopped similarly. You can also use asparagus, mushrooms, corn, tomatoes, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, eggplant, or whatever vegetables you enjoy, but keep in mind that some will cook faster than others.
- Olive oil, Spicy Barbecue Sweet Heat Seasoning, salt, and black pepper: These season the vegetables and help them grill up flavorful and lightly charred.
Note: All ingredients amounts are listed in the recipe card section when you keep scrolling down.
How to Make Spicy-Sweet Grilled Basil Chicken and Grilled Vegetables
- This easy grilled chicken dinner uses just 5 main ingredients plus simple vegetables for a fresh, colorful meal that’s perfect for grilling season.
- Marinate the chicken with Sweet and Spicy Cayenne Grilling Sauce, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and salt while you chop the broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, bell peppers, and onion.
- Toss the vegetables with olive oil, sweet heat seasoning, salt, and pepper, then add them to a large grill basket.
- Grill the vegetables until lightly charred and tender-crisp, and grill the chicken until nearly cooked through.
- Brush the chicken with more sweet and spicy cayenne grilling sauce, let it finish cooking until juicy and caramelized, then garnish with fresh basil and serve with the grilled vegetables.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for step-by-step photos and process shots of the cooking process.
Spicy-Sweet Grilled Basil Chicken
Equipment
- 1 Grill
Ingredients
Chicken
- 2 to 2 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded to an even thickness or sliced thin
- ½ jar of Sweet and Spicy Cayenne Grilling Sauce, divided
- 3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, lemon or lime juice may be substituted
- 2 to 3 teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste
- ⅓ cup finely minced fresh basil leaves, for garnishing; or as desired
Grilled Vegetables
- 1 medium to large head broccoli, with florets trimmed
- 2 medium zucchini, cut into large bite-sized pieces
- 2 medium yellow squash, summer squash, cut into large bite-sized pieces
- 1 large red bell pepper, or any color, seeded and sliced into 3/4-inch wide strips
- 1 medium red onion, sliced vertically into chunky wedges
- 3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons Spicy Barbecue Sweet Heat Seasoning, or as desired
- 1 to 2 teaspoon salt, or as desired
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or as desired
Instructions
Chicken
- Pound chicken to an even thickness with a meat tenderizer (or use thin-cut chicken breasts). Tip – It's important that chicken is a uniform thickness so it cooks evenly. If you're newer to grilling, working with thinner-cut breasts is often easier to judge when the chicken is done.
- To a large ziptop bag, add the chicken, add about 1/3 cup of Sweet and Spicy Cayenne Grilling Sauce (use Sticky Sweet Brown Sugar Barbecue Sauce instead if you're concerned about spiciness), the olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt, seal bag, and squish the contents around to evenly coat all the pieces of chicken. Tips – Always add salt to your taste preferences. However adding enough salt + the acidity of the vinegar in the marinade mixture really helps the chicken to not only taste good, but it will absorb essential moisture as it marinates and be juicier in the end.
- Place bag in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 30 minutes, up to about 6-8 hours.
Vegetables
- To a large grill basket, add all the vegetables
- Liberally drizzle olive oil over them, evenly sprinkle the (use instead if you're concerned about spiciness), evenly sprinkle salt and pepper, to taste, Tips – I am pretty generous with salt and pepper for grilled vegetables because some of it is lost to the grill, and in this case you're seasoning many pounds worth of vegetables and they will taste best when properly seasoned so don't be shy.
Grilling
- Preheat your grill to medium-high heat. Tips – I start by grilling the vegetables because they may take a bit longer to grill than the chicken. Plus it gives the chicken a chance to marinate longer. If you have a very large grill, you may be able to do it all at once, but I can't quite fit everything easily and I can keep an eye on things better if I grill the veg and chicken separately.
- Place the grill basket on the grill with the vegetables and grill for about 10 to 15 minutes, with the lid closed. Every 3 to 5 minutes or so, stir and flip the veggies in the basket with a tongs and close the lid again. Tip – If you don't have enough space in your grill basket, it's ok to grill the red peppers and chunky onion wedges on the grill grates, but note they will cook faster when directly on the grates so pay attention so they're not burning.
- Place the grilled veggies on a platter or in a bowl, optionally cover with a sheet of foil to keep warmer; and set aside while you grill the chicken.
- Tip – Make sure the heat level of your grill is in the medium to medium-high range, but not on high or you will burn the chicken due to the sugar content in the marinade and sauce!
- Place the chicken breasts on the grill grates, close the lid, and leave the chicken breasts there about 4 to 5 minutes before you open the lid and gently lift one corner of one of the breasts with a tongs. If it releases easy, it's ready to be flipped. If not, let it cook for another minute or two. Tips – Always cook chicken based on how long it needs to be cooked based on the heat intensity and output of your grill, the thickness and size of your chicken, etc. Times will vary and so use my time estimates as a guideline only.
- Grill the chicken on the second side for about 3 to 4 minutes, or until nearly done.
- Evenly brush a generous amount of Sweet and Spicy Cayenne Grilling Sauce over the top of each chicken breast, close the lid, turn the heat down if necessary, and allow it to sit for 1 to 2 minutes, or until it's a bit thicker and has set up a bit.
- Remove the chicken from the grill, place it on a platter, and I always recommend allowing the chicken to rest for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing it so the natural juices stay sealed in.
- Garnish liberally with fresh basil and serve warm with the grilled vegetables. Extra chicken and vegetables will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 4 months, noting the texture of the vegetables will change if you freeze and then thaw them.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Post is brought to you by Sauce Goddess. The recipe, images, text, and opinions expressed are my own.
This looks amazing and I can’t wait to try it. however, i could not get the coupon code to work. Is this sold strictly on line?
It is sold in retail stores. Here you can see if there is anything in your area. And thank you for LMK that you are having difficulty with the code. I am messaging my contact now and will update the post today!
https://saucegoddess.com/finding-the-goddess/retail-locations/
Hi Averie’s readers. Here’s a short list of retailers if you don’t want to shop on our website. Sprouts-spice shakers, Meijer-spice tins, Whole Foods and Fred Meyer, QFC and King Soopers-sauces, Central Market-spice shakers and then there are a lot of indie retailers throughout the country.
The owner double checked and it is working successfully on her end and other readers have used it. So definitely try again and make sure you’re entering it like this: AverieCooks